VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY –HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE INVESTIGATING STUDENTS' USE OF SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS AS AN EFFECTIVE MEANS FOR SELF-STUDY A CASE STUDY AT NGUYEN THI DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN BEN TRE PROVINCE Submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LE THI THAO Supervised by DOAN HUE DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who in one way or another contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study. It is a pleasure to thank these people. First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Doan Hue Dung, Head of the Foreign language center of Nong Lam University, for the continuous support of my research, for her patience, inspiration, sincerity, enthusiasm and immense knowledge.
Her logical way of thinking and great efforts to explain things clearly and simply have been of grate value for me. Her understanding, encouraging, guidance, detailed and constructive comments helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank my friends and colleagues for their encouragement. I also thank the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature for their support and assistance since the start of my postgraduate work in 2009.
The library facilities have been indispensable. My warm and sincere thanks also go to my husband for his share of my problems, his help in editing and decorating the report. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my parents for giving birth to me at the first place, helping me get through the difficult times and supporting me spiritually throughout my life. I am thankful to my entire extended family for providing a loving environment for me.
Ben Tre, Vietnam, November 2012 Le Thi Thao i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY AND RETENTION OF USE This thesis is submitted for the Master’s degree of TESOL in the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City National University. I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been and will not be published or submitted for publication or for academic assessment in any other academic course. I certify that my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ……………………… ……………………….
CONTEXT OF PROBLEM …………………………………………. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ……………………………. DELIMITATION AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY……………. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS ……………………………….
2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ……… ……………………………. SELF-STUDY IN LANGUAGE LEARNING …………………………. Definition of self-study ………………………………………………4 2. The importance of self-study to success in language learning …….
Self-study and motivation …………………………………………. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING …6 2. Students’ learning diaries………………………………………. Other supplementary materials …………………………………….
THE ROLE OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS ……………………… 23 2. RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY AND SAMPLING METHOD …. Questionnaire for students ………. Questionnaire for teachers ………….
Semi-structured interviews with teachers ………. Semi-structured interview with students ………….36 iii CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………………………. ANALYSIS OF DATA ………………………………………………. How students in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School used supplementary materials in their self-study? …………………………………………………….
Kinds of materials used ………………………………….2 Reasons why students used and did not use various kinds of supplementary materials in their English self-study ……………………………. Frequency of using supplementary materials ……………. Students’ use of supplementary materials in teachers’ point of view …………………………………………………………………………. The influence of people around on students’ use of supplementary materials ………………………………………………………… 46 4.
Students’ use of each kind of materials …………………. How students in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School was assisted in using supplementary materials for self-study? ………………………………………. DISCUSSION OF RESULT ……………………………………………74 4. Students’ use of supplementary materials ………………………….
Assistance to students …………………………………………….77 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ……. For teachers of English ……………………………………………. For school staff leaders and school unions…………………………81 5. For school library ………………………………………………….
For students’ parents………………………………………………. CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY …………………………………. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ……………. 94 iv APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE About students’ use of supplementary materials in learn English ………………………………………………….
94 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE For teachers- about students’ use of supplementary materials in self-study of English ……………………………. 108 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONS USED IN PILOT STUDY ……………………….112 Teachers’ opinion about the questionnaire for teachers ……………. 112 Teachers’ opinions about the questionnaire for students …………….… 113 Students’ opinion about the questionnaire for students …………. 115 With students using many kinds of materials ………………………….
115 With students using no supplementary materials ………………………. 115 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Meaning Page TEFL teaching English as a foreign language 3 EFL English as a foreign language 4 L2 second language 4 L1 first language 5 MLDs monolingual dictionaries 11 BLDs bilingual dictionaries 11 BLLDs bilingualised dictionaries 11 MOET Ministry of Education and Training vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Effectiveness of dictionaries to four skills ………………………….… 16 Table 2: Negative and positive features of different types of dictionaries ……… 16 Table 3: Design of questionnaire for students …………………………………. 30 Table 4: Statistics _ Number of materials used …………………………………. 38 Table 5: Frequency of using various kinds of materials ………….…………… 40 Table 6: Mean of frequency of using various materials ……………………….
42 Table 7: Teachers’ perception about students’ use of supplementary materials …43 Table 8: Valid and missing cases in answering for question 2 in questionnaire for students …………………………………………………………………………. 47 Table 9: People who recommended students to use various materials ……. 49 Table 10: Percentage of using guidebooks ……………………………. 52 Table 11: Number of workbook and reference books used …………………….
54 Table 12: Percentage of workbook and reference books used …………………. 55 Table 13: How much of work book and reference books students used in a negative way …………………………………………………………………….56 Table 14: Number of storybooks ………………………………………………. 57 Table 15: Number of newspapers, magazines …………………………………. 57 Table 16: Percentage of story-books, newspapers and magazines used ….…… 58 Table 17: Purposes of using storybooks, newspapers and magazines ………….
59 Table 18: Use of dictionaries in class …………………………………………… 60 Table 19: Form of dictionaries used ……………………………………………. 61 Table 20: Kinds of dictionaries used …………. 62 Table 21: Necessity of guiding students to use dictionaries ……………………. 64 Table 22: Number of DVDs and videos used …………….…65 Table 23: Students’ attention while watching videos …………………………… 65 Table 24: English programmes on radio ……………… ……………………….
66 Table 25: What students learnt from the internet ………………………………. 67 Table 26: What students wrote in vocabulary notebooks ………………………. 69 Table 27 : Implication of data analysis ………………………………………… 74 Table 28: Students’ suggestion to equip more materials ………………………. 82 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1: Number of materials used by each student …………….
38 Figure 2: Frequency of using various kinds of materials ……………………. … 40 Figure 3: People from whom students got the ideas of using various materials….48 Figure 4: Purposes of using guidebooks ………………………. 53 Figure 5: Types of dictionaries …………………………………………………. 60 Figure 6: Information to refer in dictionaries ……………………………………63 viii ABSTRACT To be good at English, it is essential to make use of various kinds of materials.
However, very little was known about students’ use of supplementary materials for self-study in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School. This study was aimed at exploring the issue concerning kinds of materials, frequency of use, ways of using, affecting factors and suggestions to help students in this school learn English more effectively. The subjects of the study were 206 students and four teachers of English. Information was collected through questionnaires for teachers, questionnaires for students, interviews with four students and two teachers.
The result of the study indicated that: 1. Students used very little of supplementary materials and very few of them used the materials in recommended ways. Few students got assistance from other people in using the materials. To help students make full use of supplementary materials, it requires various actions from teachers, school leaders and unions, students’ parents and students themselves.
This report can help to raise awareness of relating people and motivate them to better the state. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. CONTEXT OF PROBLEM Nguyen Thi Dinh High School, a school in the rural area of Ben Tre Province, was established in 2004. In comparision to other schools in the province so far, this school is rather new and the entry requirments for it are normally quite low.
Students of this school mostly come from agrarian families, many of whom have low living standard. Therefore, it seems that students in this school do not have much chance to approach various kinds of supplementary materials and this, to some extent, may limit their choice for self-study. Normally, teachers pay much attention to their methods and techniques of teaching, to the language content and skills students need to acquire in class. One important factor for the success of the students, which is not given enough care by both teachers and students, is students‘ self-study.
This research was conducted as a case study in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School, with the hope to give an overview on (a) how much students of Grade 10 and 11 were exposed to various sources of supplementary materials; (b) how they used these materials for their English self-study and (c) what teachers of English had done to help their students use supplementary materials effectively. Data was collected from questionnaires and interviews with teachers of English and students of Grade 10 and 11 in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY This study aims to help students in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School make better use of supplementary materials to improve their English. Specifically, it is hoped to raise students‘ awareness of using various supplementary materials for self-study and to remind teachers of English of the importance of introducing and encouraging students to use supplementary materials for self-study.
Moreover, the result may help teachers realize what materials their students have got and how their students are using such materials and thus find out different ways to help their students get access to and use supplementary materials effectively. Parents who are concerned with their children‘s learning English may get useful information about 1 the facilities that their children have got and about what their children should be equipped with to support English learning. The study may also help the school administrators realize their role and the necessity of taking various actions to help students in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School learn English better. RESEARCH QUESTIONS To attain the aims and objectives mentioned above, this study sought to answer the two research questions as follows: (1) How do students of Grade 10 and 11 in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School use supplementary materials for English self-study? (2) How have students in Nguyen Thi Dinh High School been assisted to make good use of supplementary materials for English self-study? 1.
DELIMITATION AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY As the study was conducted in the setting of Nguyen Thi Dinh High School , a normal school in rural area of Ben Tre Province, the findings of this study may not necessarily be generalized to (a) students in urban areas of Vietnam, who have much more chances to get access to various sources of supplementary materials, (b) English majored students in schools for the gifted, who are highly motivated in learning English and in self-study and (c) students of Grade 12, whose main studying purpose is to pass the final examination for secondary education. The study was conducted on the assumption that answers for the two questionnaires and sharing in the interviews truly reflected what the participants were doing.